> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.muhaajirah.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # The Egyptian Doritos That Made Me Cry - URL: https://www.muhaajirah.com/egyptian-doritos-made-me-cry/ - Published: 2026-08-26T07:17:29.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-26T07:17:29.000Z - Description: I thought I was having a little taste of home. Then I opened the bag. These were NOT Doritos. - Author: Bint Jihad - Tags: Hijrah, Homesickness, Egypt, Life After Hijrah, Personal Reflections, Tawakkul We moved to Egypt in July 2023\. I’ll talk about that whole experience another time because *that* is a story in itself! Soon after arrival, we applied for Al-Ibaanah, a really good center for learning Arabic, and I got into their intensive Arabic program. I believe we had about a 10- to 15-minute break in the middle of the day for snacks, lunch, praying, what have you. In that time, I walked over to one of those little stores that are tucked along the streets. I went with a friend, and it was literally right across the street from the school. I go inside and I’m looking around at the snacks. A lot of them are native to Egypt, so I’m not very familiar with them yet. But then I see something I *do* recognize. **I see Doritos.** And I'm like, “Yeeeaaa boiiii, I'm 'bout to dig into these Doritos!” Maaannn, I was so excited LOL. I snag maybe one or two bags. Of course they're overpriced because they're imported, but girl, *I do not care.* I’m like, “I’m having a little taste of home!” I walk back across the street to the school, wind through all those little tight hallways to get back into my classroom, and squeeze between some desks to get into my seat because I am antisocial, so of course I had myself tucked in the back somewhere. I open my backpack where I stuffed my Doritos, pull them out, and open the bag. They already don’t look right. You know that vibrant red dusting we all know and love? They look similar, but you can tell the seasoning isn’t quite the same, or whatever it is they put all over the chip. I ignore that. I’m like, “Okay, maybe this one just wasn’t dusted the same way.” Anyways, I eat one... and I slow down chewing immediately. **These are not Doritos.** I try another one, and my vision starts to get blurry. **These are NOT Doritos.** The tsunami of emotion crashes into me at this point. Sadness, disappointment, anger. I seriously did not realize how much I was banking on these chips for comfort and reassurance of home. So now I’m just staring at them as if they have personally offended me, which, in a way, they have. I wanted to squeeze the entire bag into crumbs and throw it somewhere. Because now I’m sittin' here thinking, *this was supposed to remind me of home. This was supposed to be my little home away from home. And they don’t even taste right.* They are perfectly edible chips. But continuing to eat them is like continuing to confirm, *yeah, this is not right. This is not home.* I think I ended up giving the rest of the bag to somebody else because I couldn't finish them. I just remember staring at that bright red Doritos bag and seeing the background behind it changing in my mind. I see it in the pantry at my house. I see it at a Shell gas station. I see it at Walmart (which I also dearly missed, but that is a completely different side story LOL). I can see the Doritos in all these familiar places where it’s like, *yes, there. That’s what these chips taste like.* It’s almost like one of those spot-the-difference things where you finally see the thing you were looking for. Like, yes. **That.** Then the Walmart aisle fades back into the tiny, overcrowded classroom in Nasr City, Egypt. And instead of being on my way to checkout, I'm holding this bag, surrounded by people that I don’t really know, and I don’t understand what they’re saying. And girl, I don’t even wanna be there because it’s *soo* early in the morning and I’m so tired. I am *not* a morning person. ☠️ I just wanted a snack to get me through the rest of class. Just have a little taste of home to get me through the day. And I can’t even have that. Then there’s also the other part of me that’s like: "Wow. I really am out here 'bout to cry over a bag of chips." ☠️ But it was more than a bag of chips. It was home. *It was something familiar in a place that was unfamiliar to me.* This was my first hijrah. I had detached myself from everything I knew, and I was trying to get accustomed to an entirely different place. I just wanted something to help with that process, and the Doritos didn’t help. Honestly, they made it worse. Because now there was something right in front of my face that looked like what I was used to, but still wasn’t right. Eventually I tried to turn it around in my mind and tell myself, *okay, I’m grateful there’s something here, Alhamdulillah. Things are going to be different. Things are not going to be the same as back home.* I had been clinging to home so badly because a few weeks before, that was my whole life. My whole world. I then realized I was still trying to have one foot mentally over there and one foot over here, and I had to learn that I couldn’t keep expecting everything around me to recreate the life I had left. And that was hard. So with the chips, I had to tell myself: **Okay. These are not American Doritos. These are** ***Egyptian*** **Doritos.** When I looked at them as *American* Doritos, my heart broke. But when I looked at them like *Egyptian* Doritos, the chips honestly weren’t that bad LOL. It was enough of a Dorito. I got the Dorito vibe. It was just a bit different. That’s easier to take than thinking, *this is supposed to be the same American Dorito just over here in Egypt. That is going to tear me apart.* Changing my outlook helped. I eventually got accustomed to the taste and, at that moment, was inspired to make a list of things I missed from home to indulge in whenever we went back to visit. That really helped me a lot, Alhamdulillah (that list is about half a year long btw). What reassured me the most was remembering that Allah is fully aware of all my hardships and challenges. He promises relief with every hardship (Surat Ash-Sharh - 94:5-6). > **بِسْمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحْمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ** > فَإِنَّ مَعَ ٱلْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا (٥) إِنَّ مَعَ ٱلْعُسْرِ يُسْرًۭا (٦) > *Verily, along with every hardship is relief,* > *Verily, along with every hardship is relief (i.e. there is one hardship with two reliefs, so one hardship cannot overcome two reliefs).* (Al-Hilali & Khan) He knows what my heart left for His Sake and what it longs for, and He will replace it with something better. > Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) said: > إنك لن تدع شيئاً لله عز وجل إلا بدلك الله به ما هو خير لك منه > **“You do not leave anything for Allah’s Sake, the Mighty and Majestic, except that Allah will replace it for you with that which is better than it.”** (Reported by Imām Ahmad in Al-Musnad no. 21996 – declared saheeh by Al-Albānī in Silsilah al-Ahādeeth ad-Da’eefah, 1/62 and he said: ‘Its isnād is saheeh according to the conditions of Muslim’) [(reference)](https://abukhadeejah.com/you-do-not-leave-anything-for-allahs-sake-except-that-he-will-replace-it/?ref=muhaajirah.com) Trusting in that promise gave me so much reassurance, though the process was still hard to accept and actualize. One day, Allah will give me the better Doritos replacement, and I will be happy.